I Don’t Like Cricket

We’re over in Nelson for a few days, one of the reasons for which is to go and see the Wellington Blaze and Firebirds play away from home. They’re playing Central Districts (Hinds and Stags), whose territory, as well as central North Island, includes the top of the South Island as well.

We arrived at Saxton Oval in good time, which was just as well as we originally went to the wrong entrance and were asked if we had hospitality passes. Which we didn’t, of course, so we were directed back to the Commoner’s entrance halfway around the ground from where we were. There is little public seating made of seats, instead you take your own seating and position it on the banks around the ground. There are few trees providing shade around the ground at the top of the banks so we found some space under one of these, and set ourselves up there. I then went to explore the ground. I located a water cart, but it wasn’t plugged into the water yet, but then found a permanent water fountain instead. The beer tent and food trucks were arranged near the entrance, but without the eclectic mix of cuisines that the Basin Reserve has, so it looked like fish & chips would be the order of the day.

At 1240, the Blaze and Hinds came on to the pitch. Blaze had won the toss and elected to bat first. First blood went to the Hinds when they took opener and all-round star Melie Kerr for 7, and after 20 overs, largely held together by Melie’s sister Jess with 59 runs, they’d amassed 114/8. Not a convincing performance, and as we’d observed a couple of days earlier, Saxton Oval is quite a small ground and high scores can be achieved.   

But this is the Wellington Blaze we’re talking about, and they have probably the best bowling attack in the women’s competition. They set about their business and Jess Kerr took two quick wickets in the second over. They kept applying pressure and the required run rate started to creep up over the ensuing overs. Another quick flurry of wickets in the middle left them at 37/5 at the halfway mark, and it was looking like a tough ask for the remaining batters. Wickets continued to fall regularly without much being added to the total and they were finally all out for 89 after 19 overs, giving the Blaze a 25 run victory…pretty much according to form.

There was a short break before the men came on. We repositioned our chairs as the tree shade had moved, but this became moot as the sky clouded over as the afternoon wore on. The Wellington Firebirds also won the toss and also elected to bat first. In they came and, true to form, lost an early wicket – Blundell, in the first over, without troubling the scorers. But after that early wobble they consolidated and put on 66/1 in the powerplay. After that wickets did start to fall, but they were amassing a good total and ended on a very defendable 190/5, with both Robinson and Abbas making half centuries.

The Stags started well but then lost two early wickets in the second over, and finished the powerplay at 52/3. As they continued, wickets fell at regular intervals but they kept on top of the run rate, and at the 16^th over they needed 67 runs off the last 5 overs. They promptly hit 15, 16, and 19 runs off the next three overs without loss, and suddenly they were well within reach with only 18 runs required off the last two overs. Eminently doable…until Van Beek struck twice in the penultimate over, and also strangled the scoring, leaving them needing 16 off the final over. They added just four runs, and lost their remaining wickets by the last ball, 11 runs short of the total. This gave a rare double win for the Wellington teams so we went home happy.